Blizz Takes Away Readiness — For the Toon and for the Player

August 11, 2013

Most of the betting for 5.4 going live puts it around the first or second week after Labor Day in the U.S., about a month from now. At the risk of annoying those of you who were whining about having nothing left to do in game two weeks after Mists was released, I say to Blizz, “For crying out loud, give us a break!”

As I was thinking about some of the hunter changes coming up in 5.4, it occurred to me that removing Readiness from our abilities is fundamentally a matter of removing choices from play style. Hunters are pretty much at the total mercy of a staggering array of cooldowns, and while Readiness itself is really just a meta-cooldown, it at least offers us a once-per-boss-fight way to control the assembly line. I’m sure there are hunters out there who can control every cd so precisely that they manage to do mad dps as well as orchestrate every major cd so they are available at exactly the right moment, but the rest of us like to know we have a little slack. If we have slovenly failed to calculate the convergence of the 6+ cooldowns — each with a different reset timer — in our 7-10 shot rotation and suddenly it’s THE MOMENT on the boss, there’s good old Readiness waiting for us, ready to absolve us of our sins at the push of a button. It’s a very tiny way for me to control my game play on my own timeline, and it offers a respite from Blizzard’s relentless auto timers.

For me, the end of an expansion or a major patch serves a similar base function to Readiness — it’s a time when I can control my game play on my own timeline, with no pressure to push through Blizzard’s progression gates. I finally get to breathe a little. My main is relatively well geared, I have a few level 90 alts, and my professions are producing some respectable income. Since I don’t have to grind LFR-instances-scenarios-rep on my main, I get to have fun running some lower level stuff on my alts, doing some of the achieves I haven’t had time for, leveling my monk and figuring out how to heal on it, and generally enjoying guild chat and activities.

I know, I know — no one forces me to do a full opt-in at the start of new content. But come on, anyone who really loves this game can’t help but put pressure on themselves to move through to whatever their goals are as soon as they can. It’s human nature. Right? For me, the process is complicated by my pesky day job, so that I can only play a couple of hours a day most days, so I add more pressure to myself to move forward when I see others in my guild progressing at a faster rate. Not that I am competitive, mind you!

Blizz, I am pleading with you — save me from my Type A personality! Delay 5.4 as long as you possibly can. I’M NOT READY!